Ref. 22600-16The fatal shooting of a PC in Leeds has again stirred up the debate over whether police officers on our streets should be armed. ANDY TATE reports.

The killing of PC Ian Broadhurst on Boxing Day was a fearful reminder to police officers of the daily risks they take in protecting the public and upholding the law.

The Leeds shooting also revived the question of whether police should routinely carry guns.

Gun crime is on the rise. In 2002/03 there were 32 firearms offences in Wiltshire. There were 26 the previous year and 13 the year before that.

The total number of crimes involving guns including replica firearms and airguns increased by 30 per cent, from 98 in 2001 to 135 in 2002.

It has been suggested that officers should be routinely armed as a way of offering them greater protection from this increased threat.

If criminals are taking up guns in growing numbers, goes the argument, then it is only fair police have a proportionate capability to defend themselves.

The image of the British bobby enforcing the law with nothing more than a truncheon and a few stern words is already well out of date.

CS gas has been standard issue across the UK for some time, officers are provided with ballistic and stab-proof vests, and trials of stun guns are being undertaken in some areas, including the Thames Valley.

Every force has an armed unit on alert 24 hours a day to deal with any situation requiring an armed response.

In Bristol the police have sent regular armed patrols into the deprived St Paul's and Easton districts of the city, amid fears that gang warfare fuelled by drugs could turn into bloody violence on the streets.

Last November an all-party group of MPs called for an increase in the number of specially trained officers across the country.

But the Government and police leaders have so far resisted calls to routinely arm every police officer.

A Home Office spokesman said the PC Broadhurst shooting was unlikely to prompt a rethink in policy.

"The use of firearms by police has been and remains a rare last resort," he said. "Police should not generally be armed.

"Instead, specialist firearms officers are called out where the need arises, and the authorisation of the use of firearms is an operational matter for senior police officers."

The reluctance to go down the path of routine arming is perhaps because such a move would go against the traditions of British policing.

Another possible reason is that once such a decision had been made it would be virtually impossible to reverse.

If all police officers carried guns then criminals might be encouraged to do the same, leading to an increase in gun crime.

In America, where officers are armed as a matter of course, gun crime kills 11,000 people each year. By contrast, in 2001-02 the number of people killed by firearms in the UK was 23.

Pat Stayt, chief superintendent of Wiltshire police, said he did not expect armed police officers to become a regular sight on the streets of Swindon any time soon.

"I'm not saying it could never happen but it's not appropriate now or in the immediate future," he said, adding that he was not convinced the arming of police officers would have prevented the shooting of PC Broadhurst.

Chief Supt Stayt pointed to research carried out by the Police Federation last year, which found an overwhelming majority of officers did not want to be armed.

That is not to say officers were unaffected by the incident in Leeds, when PC Broadhurst and two colleagues were shot at without warning during an everyday operation.

"When officers see that it makes them think," said Chief Supt Stayt. "The case in Leeds was the kind of routine operation undertaken in Swindon daily. Officers are out there stopping cars and do not know who they're confronting. It makes you realise policing is a high risk activity."

But the risk to officers in Swindon is no worse than in towns of a similar size.

Chief Supt Stayt said the majority of gun crime is connected to illegal drugs, and Swindon's problem is not comparable to that in cities like Bristol, London, Birmingham and Manchester, where both drugs and guns were more prevalent.

He said the way to stop gun crime taking a foothold in Swindon is to actively police drug markets and intervene to combat new dealers and networks when they move into the town.

It is also important that those caught using firearms are properly punished, he added. "When we are able to prove criminal use of firearms we would seek the support from the courts so their sentencing sent out a strong message," he said.